You’d be forgiven for regarding the bit of the Budget speech where George Osborne talked about the Bank of England and its work as a bit dull, a bit fiddly, and turn your attention to more interesting stuff like beer and fuel taxes instead.

That would be a mistake, because all that complicated stuff on the Bank of England is at the heart of the Budget, and the heart of Britain’s economic prospects. Which means the level of inflation on the goods you buy, the performance of the investments your pension rests on, the prospects for employment, incomes, the lot.

Since the Bank of England was given its independence over interest rates by Labour, it has operated under a clear remit: keep inflation at or around a certain level, currently 2 per cent CPI. It’s consistently missed that target for years, while politicians have turned a blind eye.

Mr Osborne wants to change that, and come clean about the relaxation of inflation targeting. Low inflation, he says is “necessary but not sufficient” for a strong economy. So the Bank will be given more latitude about hitting that target. It may be also be able to tell markets about its likely moves on inflation in the months and years ahead, which might even make it easier to plan your mortgage costs (if you can get one, of course).

The Bank may also have to use “unconventional monetary policy” alongside its new freedom over inflation, Mr Osborne says. That means more quantitative easing and, well, who knows? The Chancellor is in the market for new thinking.

This sort of thing can easily startle financial markets, who worry about politicians trying to use inflation to erode the value of Government debts. To reassure them, Mr Osborne made clear that the 2 per cent target stays in place, which seems to have steadied the pound, for now.

But what about the politics? Well, I read it this way: with the deficit stubbornly large, debt still rising and growth still dismal, Mr Osborne had no room for manoeuvre, unless he simply abandoned Plan A outright, something he has refused to do. Yes, there’s a bit of juggling to get more capital spending, but no one thinks that will be game-changingly large.

So in the all-important search for something to stimulate the UK economy, Mr Osborne, as he has since 2010, is left with monetary activism and the Bank of England. Sir Mervyn King has been accommodating, up to a point. But he will soon hand over to Canada’s Mark Carney, Mr Osborne’s personal choice for the job.

Mr Osborne believes the Canadian is the right man for the Bank of England. His confidence in Mr Carney must be considerable, because today, he has effectively entrusted the new governor with responsibility not just for a UK economic recovery, but the outcome of the next general election too.